1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to spherical object supplying apparatus, and more particularly to a spherical object supplying apparatus which is used for supplying spherical objects from a process to the following process in a process of treating or manufacturing spherical objects such as spherical single crystal silicon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a semiconductor device is formed according to the following method: That is, a circuit pattern is formed on a plate-shaped single crystal silicon wafer, and the wafer thus processed is subjected to dicing as required, to form a semiconductor chip. In this connection, recently a technique has been proposed in the art that a circuit pattern is formed on a spherical semiconductor (or ball semiconductor) less than 1 mm in diameter.
The formation of discrete elements such as solar batteries and photo-sensors or semiconductor integrated circuits, for instance, with spherical single crystal silicons, needs a variety of treatment processes such as a process of mirror-polishing spherical single crystal silicons, a washing process, a film forming process, a resist coating process, a photo-lithography process, and an etching process. And in order to manufacture the spherical semiconductor elements with high efficiency, it is necessary to provide a manufacturing line system including the aforementioned variety of processes.
If, with respect to the manufacturing line system, spherical single crystal silicons are irregularly delivered to a processing station (hereinafter referred to as " a second station", when applicable) from the preceding processing station (hereinafter referred to as " a first station", when applicable), then at the second station the amount of spherical single crystal silicons supplied thereto is variable, and therefore the processing conditions must be adjusted according to the variable amount of spherical single crystal silicons. Hence, in this case, it is impossible to achieve the processes with high efficiency. Hence, it is essential that spherical objects such as spherical single crystal silicons are sequentially and periodically conveyed to a processing station from the preceding processing station at predetermined intervals. The surfaces of a silicon is liable to be oxidized. If the surface of the silicon is covered with a natural oxide film, the silicon is not sufficiently in contact with a metal electrode layer formed on the natural oxide film. That is, it is preferable that the spherical objects are conveyed and treated in a closed space without contacting the outside air.
As above described, in order to manufacture spherical semiconductor elements with high efficiency, it is necessary to connect the various processing stations one after another; that is, to provide the processing stations in a line, and to sequentially supply the aforementioned spherical single crystal silicons to all of the processing stations. And, in view of productivity and quality, the aforementioned operations must be carried out at high speed and with high reliability.
In the case where spherical objects stored in a storing container like a hopper is dropped one at a time through the pipe of the container so as to be supplied to a processing station, as shown in FIG. 1 the spherical objects S are gathered (stacked) at the outlet E as in the case of blocks stacked to form a block wall, thus closing the outlet E.